


Embers In The Wind

by herrDoktorat (rikkuni)



Series: The Blacksmith God [1]
Category: Saint Seiya
Genre: Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 16:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3699482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rikkuni/pseuds/herrDoktorat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aries Mu returns to find an unsettling presence in his temple.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Embers In The Wind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Arietide](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arietide/gifts).



> This is a present for my dear friend, Arietide.

Aries Mu gazed at his temple warily. For some time now, even in the distant reaches of Jamir, he had been sensing a strange, dreadful Cosmo coming from the Sanctuary. Were his master alive, he could have have advised the Aries Saint, for disaster neared the place constantly. Unfortunately, the man had long since passed. Mu had only himself to count on, himself, and maybe one other. The old master was an option, but one too far for comfort.

Kiki was charged with guarding the Aries Temple in his brief absence, and could be in danger. That alone was the reason the Aries Saint teleported as near the Sanctuary as he possibly could, and quickly ascended the stairways.

Now that he had arrived, however, he could not bring himself to enter.  _What is this?_  he thought, teeth clenched, his own gold cloth trembling as if under pressure. Yet underneath the fire and the dread there was grief, and also... something familiar. Not anything he'd known in this life, but something the stars inside him recognized.

Mu glanced skyward. The clock was not lit; the Sanctuary was safe. This meant he had time, and therefore options.

Kiki was in the temple somewhere. Mu could feel his faint presence, but the hostile Cosmo, which he now realized was also coming from inside there, was interfering. Was his pupil the target? Mu had heard tales of persecution conducted against his kind, but to attack a boy inside a sacred place was unheard of. If they were powerful enough to enter the Sanctuary unhindered, then the village was no longer safe.

 _Kiki,_  he called out through telepathy. 

There was no response. 

_Kiki, can you hear me?_

Nothing.

"The boy is unconscious,"he whispered to the winds, now worried beyond belief, though only a slight widening of his eyes would have betrayed the emotion. This left him with one other option save charging him, as Aldebaran would undoubtedly have done before anyone else could stop him. Mu was far too cautious for that, but he envied his friends in that respect; their steps always reached farther than his.

Mu hated doing this, but he had no choice. With a deep breath, the Aries Saint closed his eyes, and his senses spread throughout the Sanctuary, or so they were supposed to. In truth, he could barely see past the door to his own temple. No matter. The important thing was Kiki, whose presence indicated he was halfway through the temple. There was a strange quality to his Cosmo, but the Aries Saint had no time to worry. Quietly apologizing, he sent his consciousness forward, toward his apprentice, toward his mind, breaching every lock he could find.

Memories.

Not anything grand, but each and every one meaningful.

_A kind smile._

_A warm hand._

_A soft touch._

_A loving embrace._

One after another, memories infused with overwhelming happiness went through his consciousness. Despite having cared for Kiki since the boy was a toddler, only later did the Aries Saint realize that each and every memory was of him.

Then, there was fire. The flames engulfed everything, burned away the happiness he briefly felt. Though there was a comforting warmth to this fire, it burned with unimaginable sorrow, so great it would have persisted for a thousand lifetimes.

When he came to his senses, Mu was standing inside the temple, face to face with the fiery-haired child he so treasured—except the boy was not looking at him, and fiery was more apt a description than ever before.

Next, a booming voice reverberated throughout the whole temple:

"Who dares intrude my mind?" it asked, and Mu realized, too late he realized, that the voice was coming from his boy.

"The gold saint, Aries Mu," he answered evenly, supressing the urge to take one or several steps back, struggling to keep his back straight and his head high.

The embers that left his hair were carried by the wind. The boy lowered his head, and his stare should have sent every piece of the Aries Cloth flying.

Instead, he smiled.

"Not one, but two," he said, his nose reddened, tears in his eyes. "Your kind yet lives."

Aries Mu immediately kneeled. Realization hit him as though he was awakening to a ninth sense. The enormous Cosmo, the sadness, the familiarity...

"Lord Hephaestus," he said, it was all he could bring himself to say, for he was speaking to a god.

Mu saw reflected in the spotless marble floor a smile covered in snot, tears drippling to the floor as Hephaestus walked towards him.

"I made you with these hands," said Lord Hephaestus, brushing his hand against Mu's cheek in trained, precise movements that undoubtedly belonged to a master smith, "but the gods feared you, and wiped you out. Now only two remain, in every generation."

Hephaestus snorted and cleaned his face on his sleeve. Mu allowed himself a smile; he was not that different from Kiki, all things considered. 

The thought immediately brought him back to his senses.

"Raise your head," said Hephaestus, not an order but a request, one Mu was quick to comply.

"Lord Hephaestus," the Aries Saint started, "before we continue, I must know what is to become of my pupil, now that you are here."

"Kiki sleeps within me," he answered. "I do not intend to rob you of your child."

Mu decided he would have to be satisfied with that for the time being. "Our numbers are dwindling," he then said, "but there are more than two."

"Yes," said Hephaestus with a curt nod, no surprise whatsoever in his voice, "but they are not allowed near forges.  _One master and one apprentice, only two may know a fraction the craft that led to their extinction._ "

Mu tried to imagine for a moment, an Earth where his people thrived, repairing and perhaps even forging cloths for Athena, and shuddered. The gods had a reason to fear them.

"You've done the impossible," said Hephaestus, gazing upwards at something only he could see. "You breached the Wailing Wall, and with Hades dead, escaped your fate."

Hephaestus turned to look at him.

"I have a request, Aries Mu," said Hephaestus, his hair burning with ferocious intensity, his eyes each a stoked forge; then, a grin. "I want to spend some time among you lot."


End file.
